Human Trafficking: Position in the Global Setting - Research Paper Example

Introduction Human trafficking involves the movement of a person from one location to another against his or her will for the purposes of exploitation by another person who would gain some kind of benefits by the abuse and the misuse of the individual in terms of work and livelihood. This paper examines the elements of what actually constitutes human trafficking. It looks at various cases from secondary sources to identify the main causes of human trafficking and its position in the global setting. The paper examines the push and pull factors that lead to human trafficking and evaluates the difficulties that nations and jurisdictions go through trying to solve the problem. Human Trafficking The officially accepted definition of human trafficking is given by the United Nations' Trafficking Protocol which is: "The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs" This landmark definition gives a framework for the creation of humanitarian laws and statutes to identify and control the practice. This working definition has some inherent elements that have bearings on how human trafficking operates in the real world. The definition forms the basis of legal definitions in numerous nations that are signatory to the UN convention and it gives these nations the drive to co-operate with other nations in fighting the social problem since human trafficking spans over different nations and jurisdictions internationally. Elements of Human Trafficking The process of human trafficking therefore has three main dimensions: action, means and exploitation (Aronowitz, 2009). Action refers to the process of recruitment, transportation, transfers, harboring and reception of a person for the purposes defined under the UN statute. This therefore means that if a person is involved in any of these actions aimed at moving vulnerable people from one location to another with the view of exploiting these helpless people to a person's advantage, s/he will be considered to be involved in the crime of child trafficking. If a person is indicted for any action connected to the relocation with a view of exploiting the vulnerable for some conscious or unconscious purposes, he or she commits a crime of child trafficking. Thus the trafficker uses one of the stipulated actions to cause some kind of sustained bondage in which an individual remains in a position of servitude which benefits the interest of the trafficker. The means of transferring a person from one position or another also counts in determining whether a person is involved in human trafficking or not. The common means include threats, use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception and abuse. In other words, the victim of human trafficking enters a position where he is not willing to provide the services required by the traffickers. This means that a person might find himself in a situation where s/he might be exploited however, s/he can do every little about it because the traffickers are using some kind of force, threat or deception to keep him or her in such a condition. This implies clearly, that human trafficking is a function of the means that keep an individual in bondage for a period of time against his or her will. Human trafficking must also involves some kind of exploitation. This means that a person is was moved from one location to carry out some regular or irregular activity that brings benefits to his or her abductors with the victim getting very little by way of the benefits which mostly goes to the advantage of the traffickers. Typical examples of these exploitations include prostitution, sexual exploitation, forced labor or similar services or the removal of organs. This implies that an individual trafficked gets very little return for the efforts he puts into a given venture. Some of these exploitations are amoral, like sexual abuse and the like. Thus if a person is involved in a given situation where he is moved from a given location to another by a third party and he finds himself in a situation whereby he is locked into some regular activity that does not benefits him but his traffickers, he is likely to be a victim of human trafficking. Typical examples of human trafficking can be cited from different parts of the world. In Brazil, people are often promised good jobs but they end up being taken to other parts of the country where they are used as farm workers and paid very little. These victims are kept under duress whereby they are threatened with death if they attempt to escape. In Southeast Asia, young girls are taken from their homes in rural areas like Burma and China and sent to Thailand which has a growing market for prostitution. These young girls are often given ‘quotas’ to pay off their ‘debts’ by their traffickers. Some of them end up sleeping with many men in order to raise these huge sums. This is a popular form of human traffickers. In Africa, a common form of human trafficking involves children being given to foster parents to be raised. These foster parents use the children to work on farms to generate revenue which they keep. Such children are required to keep quiet since the culture frowns on them if they coming out to report such trafficking matters. Typically, human trafficking involves people moving from a poor community to a richer one with the hope of getting better lives. Once they arrive in the richer communities, the traffickers use ways and means to keep them in the bondage until they had exploited them to the fullest. Causes of Human Trafficking In exploring human trafficking, Feingold (2005) compares human trafficking with the era of slavery in history where individuals were carried from their places of origin to other areas to serve as slaves (26). This is because the African victim of slavery in the Americas in the 1500s to the 1800s had features that were similar to people trafficked in recent times. Notably, they were both captured against their will and kept in servitude against their will. Although the slavery of history was supported by local laws, modern human trafficking often goes on in various disguised forms and situations. Most people from poor countries find themselves being promised better jobs and living conditions in other countries by traffickers, however, when they get to these countries they are kept under harsh conditions and are barred from returning to their homes. Feingold (2005) identifies that this is the commonest form of human trafficking around the world today. Most of these people are subjected to beatings, sexual assault, forced labor as well as deprivation of sleep, food and wages (Feingold, 2005). Nations have responded to human trafficking by tightening border controls and the crackdown on human traffickers. However, this has only succeeded in creating an underground for these traffickers (Feingold, 2005). Human trafficking has therefore been relegated to small groups of criminals and individuals who smuggle their victims across the various borders and keep their victims in bondage using sophisticated methods, tools and systems. Most organized crime groups are no more involved in the trafficking of human beings, rather, they concentrate on the exploitation of trafficked persons. Feingold attributes this to the changes in the structures of the sex industry as well as the use of sophisticated technology which enables these crime groups to keep their victims in bondage without being detected. In examining the push factors of human trafficking, Manzo identifies that trafficking prevails in poor countries because of their distinct cultures in fostering children and the prevalence of poverty in these countries (2005). In examining the cause of human trafficking in Africa, he states that there is a seriously uneven distribution of wealth in poor nations, making the traffickers able to transfer very poor people to parts of the world without facing any resistance. Ironically, Mazo identifies that the trafficking of human beings is seen as a window of opportunities for the poor of the poor in these developing countries as they believe that after a period of exploitation, a poor person can gain some 'independence' and create some wealth to support his poor family back home. The variables that support the exodus of victims of human trafficking include education, national development and work availability (Mazo, 2005). It can therefore be observed that in a situation where a person lacks education, he is more vulnerable to fall prey to these traffickers. And once in a different location, it is more difficult for such a person to report his case or find his way out of the bondage he might be place. Also, the level of development in a given community fuels the trade in humans. In Africa, Brazil and Southeast Asia where there are seriously under-developed communities, the trafficking of humans is very common. This is because most of these people seek to find ways to leave the poverty and seek better opportunities in more developed areas. This leads to these areas becoming vulnerable in the trade of humans. Also, under-development almost always comes with an element of unemployment. Where there is a lack of job opportunities, the supply of people seeking to move out to areas with better job opportunites is much higher, this leads to trends of human trafficking in these parts of the world. Challenges to Ending Human Trafficking Attempts to stop the practice of human trafficking have faced stiff challenge. The inherent differences between human rights and humanitarian laws have made it very difficult for appropriate action to be taken to solve this problem (Blau & Mocanda, 2009). Human rights entail individual freedom, equality and dignity whereas humanitarian law seeks to eliminate barbarous violations against groups of people (Blau & Mocanda, 2009 p365). The UN Conventions are the most obvious humanitarian legal structures. However, they are accepted differently by different nations and groups of people. This makes it difficult to ensure uniformity in the crack-down on human traffickers since they always seem to take advantage of the gray areas of these two legal elements. For instance, a trafficker might want to focus on recruiting and transporting people from a poor and under-developed country where there is little legal resistance against human trafficking. When the nation comes up with laws against the practice, they will simply move to another part of the world where there is less resistance to the practice. This keeps the cycle of human trafficking rolling. Conclusion Human trafficking thrives on actions that moves individuals from one location to another and keep them in a regular exploiting activity that creates a cycle which cannot be broken by the victims like threats. Human trafficking is initiated by poverty, uneven development and the lack of opportunities in some parts of the world. These issues causes the poor and less endowed to seek to move to other parts of the world and this acts as grounds for human traffickers to transport people to different geographical areas and keep them exploited. It is also fueled by greedy people who seek to take advantage of the vulnerable. These people use covet methods and systems to remain in operation. Attempts to solve the problem is difficult since the traffickers keep on using new and more sophisticated methods to keep their trade in progress. References Aronowitz, A. A. (2009) What is Human Trafficking, Human Misery: The Global Trade in Human Beings Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Blau, J. & Moncada A. (2009). It ought to be a crime: Criminalizing human rights violations Sociological Forum Vol 22 No 3 (Sep 2000) pp. 364 – 371 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/20110218.pdf (Accessed: 27/07/2011) Manzo, K. (2005) Exploiting West Africa's children: Trafficking, Slavery & Uneven Development Area Vol 37 No. 4 (Dec 2005) pp 393 – 401 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20004478 (Accessed: 27/07/2011) Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (2007) United Nations Trafficking Protocol. Available online at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/protocoltraffic.htm Accessed: 27/07/2011 Feingold, D. A. (2005). Human trafficking Foreign Policy No 150 (Sep – Oct, 2005) 26 – 30, 32 Stable link: http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/30048506.pdf (Accessed: 27/07/2011) Read More